I have used a set of 3 Panasonic AW-UE70 cameras and an HE-40 for about 7 years now. I started with the Panasonic HS-50 switcher using SDI runs of up to about 300 feet with almost no issues. I have always used the Panasonic RP-120 controller with them. During Covid, I started using the Blackmagic ATEM mini line of switchers for streaming and recording, and using fiber HDMI runs of 150 feet worked very well.
We use 3 Datavideo PTZ-280 Camera's for registration and live streams of (pop)concerts. They work fine in a low light room. As controller we use a Skaarhoj. We use the Atem TV studio PRO switcher. We had a lot of issues with setting of the right white balance and the Skaarhoj - PTZ 280 integration but it works..
One thing I noticed online you don’t hear a lot of people talking about datavideo PTZ. I would be real interested to know what is the quality compared to some of the other PTZ packages. And what is the model number of that controller.
DIP switches! Interesting. I'm glad you did this full survey. I have not bumped into the dip switches in any videos to date from anyone that talked about BirdDog PTZ cams.
Hey, I am in need of about 5 of em, did a school orchestra stream, and did it with cameras, if I had 2-4 PTZs in addition to the 5, it would have been truly awesome....I like the idea of PTZs, and Canon's line of PTZ CR series I believe are really good...but as with anything price vs quality comes into play. Thanks for your videos as per usual.... respect from Jamaica
I handle live streaming for my parish. We have two PTZOptics cameras. We send the video signal via SDI then convert to HDMI for our ATEM Mini Pro. We control our cameras using Companion and a Stream Deck XL. I would love to have a joystick controller for tracking shots, but we just don't have the space where we needed to put the streaming setup. In the future, I would like to upgrade the ATEM Mini Pro to the SDI version and cut out the Bi-Directional SDI to HDMI converters. That would also allow me to create a mobile streaming rig with the HDMI ATEM Mini Pro.
Great video.. I have found that PTZ cameras are becoming more popular during LIVE events. I am using the SONY BRC-X400(2) with the SONY RM-IP500 Remote. They have almost replaced my cameras that require camera ops. They can be controlled using vMix too.
I recently got a Skaarhoj PTZ Fly and two Canon CR-N300, and I must say that I am impressed so far. I've only fiddled around with the camera settings, and haven't had the time to find the perfect ones yet - but yeah, I suppose at least the low light sensitivity is pretty much the same with those as with the BirdDog ones. Fortunately, with volleyball productions comes good lighting in the arenas, so that is seldom a problem.
Hello ! I think I will buy P240 from birddog. But if canon would offer a very good author tracking solution (without external server) I would go on Canon. Do you know if there is something like that in preparation ?
Older ATEM switchers and peripherals have serious compatibility issues with 3G-SDI interfacing with non-Blackmagic gear. Even when resolution and frame rate are matched, Blackmagic gear often fails to sync with SDI Level A outputs at 59.94p or 60p frame rates. In addition, some previous-generation Blackmagic gear has no SDI Level A output option, making it incompatible with non-Blackmagic gear that expects SDI Level A. As an example, I had intermittent black outs with a Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio HD switcher connected to a brand-new Epson EB-PU2213B projector, using 1080p59.94 SDI Level A outputs. To resolve this, I had to recondition the ATEM SDI output with a Blackmagic UpDownCross HD Converter, set to output 1080p59.94 SDI Level A video. What's the difference, you may ask? The UpDownCross converter produces a reliable SDI output for the Epson projector, while the ATEM TV Studio does not.
Thanks for looking at this for us John. How do these compare in terms of image quality to the Canon XA models you’ve used in the past? Do you think they can be used alongside the Canon XA’s in a multicam use-case without too much notice about their unique looks?
I own one of Birddogs P200 PTZs, and I've used them together with my Sony PXW-Z190 with no problem. You have total control of the colors and other settings, so you can get them to match really well. I suppose it would be the same for the Canon XA's ;)
Great info, John. Thanks for the overview. We are about to upgrade to an NDI workflow for our productions. Do you (or anyone else) know if the tally lights on Birddog PTZ cameras are compatible with the ATEM Extreme? My signal path would be: Remote PTZ camera with NDI connection -> network -> NDI decoder in the studio -> SDI input on the ATEM. Would the preview/program status of an input on the switcher get sent to the remote camera via the NDI connection?
Well you could have ran NDI toolkit and used a gaming joystick. This is their base model cam, it is not a Sony censor that's on the higher end models and the glass is different too
Just wish there was a way to make the tallys work with ATEM as they are all NDI triggered. I've not found a way yet, unless someone else has solved it.
I have two cameras and NDI soft can see only one. I think because both cameras are on same IP address, which is right from the box. Can you share info how to make 2 cameras appear in NDI? Also both cameras are set as a camera 1 and remote control at the same time control two cameras. How to change one camera in setting for camera 2
both cameras need different IP addresses, either via DHCP or manually assigned, simply change via the web interface. The remote control can control multiple cameras, channels 1, 2, 3. The cameras must of course have different channels.
I used to use PTZs quite a lot. But the poor image quality and the fact that you still have to have a camera operator means that over time I've cut way back.
The image quality depends on what you are investing. You can get everything nowadays, from tiny 2.9 to full frame. If you operate 3-5 cameras, you can do that with one camera operator instead of 3-5, seems like a good deal to me. But if you buy peanuts, you get monkeys 😇
